FAO / Codex needs to remain alert to emerging food safety issues

19/02/2020

At the Executive Committee of the Codex Alimentarius Commission held at the World Health Organization (WHO) headquarters in Geneva on 10-14 February 2020, Bukar Tijani (pictured left), FAO Assistant Director-General for the Agriculture and Consumer Protection Department emphasized the need for Codex to remain alert to emerging issues that will impact its work. Describing the nature of diseases that can spread from animals to humans and then cross borders, Tijani said that outbreaks such as African swine fever or COVID-19 may seem remote from Codex but actually were closely linked to work on scientific advice and food safety. “That’s why within WHO, FAO and also OIE, we are looking at what advice we can give and what standards we can set”.

“The spread of these diseases has three major components: animals, humans and our environment, with wildlife being at risk of acquiring infections in their habitats. The next step that we are looking at, which is of global importance, is to set standards in non-domestic animals”, Bukar Tijani said.

World Health Assembly draft resolution

Also speaking to the Codex Executive Committee, Francesco Branca (pictured right) the newly appointed WHO Director, in the Department of Nutrition and Food Safety, said that the draft World Health Assembly (WHA) resolution, Strengthening efforts on food safety, endorsed unanimously by the WHO Executive Board and due to go before the full WHA in May, “calls for strengthened action by member states, strengthening scientific advice, and strengthening the implementation of Codex”. The resolution also calls for greater support to low-income countries to assist in the development of food safety policies, food control systems and for the updates of the global burden of foodborne disease. Branca said the strategy to be developed once the resolution is adopted would need “to be very concrete in establishing targets … and establishing accountability systems and identifying actions that we can all work on together”.